JARVIS COCKER narrated this engaging account of the then-poet laureate's journey into psychedelic music

Did you know about Betjeman's Banana Blush (Radio 4, Sunday)? I didn't and found Jarvis Cocker's short documentary on the then-Poet Laureate's 1974 foray into pop fascinating.

Tony Stratton Smith, head of the Famous Charisma Label, sounded like the sort of eccentric chap you don't find very often in the modern music industry. More's the pity. His label was home to prog rockers such as Lindisfarne, Genesis and Van de Graaf Generator as well as Monty Python and Viv Stanshall.

I wanted a sound that wouldn't date because I'd dated it already

John Betjeman

Also Doggerel Bank, a group that set poetry to music and suggested making an album with Betjeman. Band member Jim Parker said they put out "what they called cult records. Some people like them but nobody actually bought them".

When Betjeman agreed to 12 of his poems getting the Doggerel Bank treatment, Parker wrote music that was heavy on the harmonium, violin and euphonium. "I wanted a sound that wouldn't date because I'd dated it already," he explained.

My favourite was Indoor Games Near Newbury, the tale of an unconsummated fumble with a girl called Wendy. You can hear the wink in Betjeman's voice as he reads over a sort of tearoom jazz: In among the silver birches Winding ways of tarmac wander

And the signs to Bussock Bottom Tussock Wood and Windy Break Gabled lodges, tile-hung churches Catch the lights of our Lagonda As we drive to Wendy's party Lemon curd and Christmas cake.

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Since it was on a pop label, the album apparently found the poet a fresh audience beyond his normal readers.

NME sent a hack to interview the Poet Laureate who apparently greeted him with the words: "It's awfully nice of you to visit me. I've bought some awfully splendid cakes for the occasion. Would you like some tea or whisky?"

Tracks from the album were regularly played by John Peel, Jarvis thinks perhaps influencing a generation of British songwriters to sing about what was around them rather than what lay across the Atlantic.

He spoke to Suggs from Madness who agreed, saying he first heard Betjeman's Banana Blush in 1979: "I was really blown away... We'd be listing to Syd Barrett one moment, the Clash the next and then that would go on. It seemed equally psychedelic in its way."